Headlines: Plekanec, Jagr, Prust, Doan, Koivu, Weber, Subban

Rick Stephens

12 years ago

All Habs Headlines: Tuesday July 24, 2012

On this day in hockey history… In 2006, Pierre Gauthier was appointed as Assistant General Manager of the Montreal Canadiens while maintaining his duties as Director of Professional Scouting.

ALL HABS HEADLINES

► Plekanec trains with Jagr: Tomas Plekanec is preparing for his eighth season with the Montreal Canadiens. Jaromir Jagr is getting ready for his new gig after signing a one-year, $4.55 million contract with the Dallas Stars. The two were on the ice together on Monday skating with players from HC Kladno of Czech Extraligia, a team partly-owned by Jagr.

Jagr spoke of the importance of summer training to deal with the heavy schedule of games and pace of the NHL.

Read more: Jagr on the ice for the first time (in Czech)

Brandon Prust makes a throw to first while patrolling third base.

► Prust mans third: Training is important to NHL players over the summer but so is supporting their community charities. Stanley Cup winning defenseman Drew Doughty hosted the Grand Slam for Cancer baseball tournament in London, Ontario on the weekend. Several NHL’ers were spotted at Labatt Memorial Park including Corey Perry, Logan Couture, Wayne Simmonds, Nazem Kadri and the Canadiens’ own Brandon Prust.

Proceeds from the event go to the London and Region Wellspring Cancer Support Center. Doughty will host another public event in London on August 23rd when he spends the day with the Stanley Cup.

Read more: Doughty’s charity grand slam

► Are we Doan yet? In a series of seemingly endless free agent rumours, TVA Sports is reporting that Shane Doan will be visiting Montreal next week. The Phoenix captain will meet with Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin in his tour of select teams as he searches for the highest bidder for his services.

It’s unclear how Doan would vault the Canadiens to the elite level which should be expected given the ransom he will be seeking.

Read more: Shane Doan visiting next week (in French)

► Koivu raises torch: As we reported yesterday, former Canadiens captain Saku Koivu was scheduled to carry the Olympic torch. His turn came this morning running through the London neighborhood of Hillingdon. Koivu described his run as “an unbelievable experience.”

“There were thousands and thousands of people on the side of the road just to see and try and touch the torch. As I was jogging with it, I was thinking about the first time I saw the Olympic flame live in 1994 at the Lillehammer Games. It brought back all the memories of the four times I was lucky enough to play in the Olympic Games. But today was different, because when we play hockey at the Olympics, you are really focused on the game, and the schedule is very compact. So, I hadn’t had a chance to really take everything in. Today was more of a chance to feel the excitement the people have about the overall Olympic experience. It was such an honor to carry the torch. I will never forget it.” — Saku Koivu

► Preds keep Weber, who’s next? On Tuesday, the Nashville Predators matched the 14-year, $110 million offer sheet that Shea Weber signed with the Philadelphia Flyers. Like it or not, Weber will be manning the Predators defense for the foreseeable future — in case you are wondering, he cannot be traded for one year.

Some in the Flyers media are wondering if Philadelphia GM Paul Holmgren will choose another RFA target having lost out on Weber.